Who is Nico Rosberg?

By on

Nico Rosberg was born in Wiesbaden, Germany on June 27, 1985. He's the son of Finlands's 1982 Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg, but Nico races under the German Flag. He won the 2005 GP2 Series for the ART Team and was confirmed as WilliamsF1 second driver for the 2006 season.

Being the son of a World Champion will have certainly opened doors for Nico, but that doesn't detract from his undoubted talent. Rosberg Junior started out in karting in 1996, at the age of eleven. In his karting career, the youngster won the Regional Côte d'Azur mini-kart Championship in 1996, the French mini-kart in 1997 and the North American ICA Junior Karting title in 1998. In the years that followed, Nico finished runner-up in the Italian ICA Junior Karting Championship and fourth in the ICA Junior European Karting Championship in 1999. He was runner-up in the 2000 Formula A European Karting Championship and in 2001 contested the Super A World Karting Championship.

In 2002, he moved up to the German Formula BMW. He won the title confidently in Formula BMW by winning 9 races. Thanks to the victory, young Nico earned him a test drive with the BMW WilliamsF1 Team.
The year after his remarkable debut in Formula BMW, Rosberg joined his father's team in the Formula 3-Euroseries. Just like in Formula BMW, the youngster did a great job finishing runner-up in the 'rookie' class. Rosberg stayed on for the 2004 season and finished 4th with 4 wins.

Following his F1 test in December 2002, Nico enjoyed further outings with the WilliamsF1 team in December 2003 and January 2004.
In 2005, having already secured a seat with the ART Grand Prix Team in the inaugural GP2 Championship, Nico was named as second test driver, alongside Antonio Pizzonia, at WilliamsF1. It was an amazing year for the young Rosberg. He won the GP2 and in November 2005, the WilliamsF1 team confirmed Nico to partner up with Mark Webber for the 2006 season.